Vancouver, British Columbia based Jewelry company Allura International has benefited from the work of personal development training programs such as those offered by Landmark Education, according to company founder and CEO Jeremy Bowman. His goal of training himself and his employees to be more effective through self development programs such as those offered by Landmark Education was written about by Right Course, a business publication owned by Business in Vancouver Publications. Read excerpts from the story below.

Test of Leadership

Management development courses offer options for new executives in British Columbia.

Building your skills can help your career prosper, and may prevent you from being trampled by rivals.

By Baila Lazaraus

In the business world, stagnation kills. If you don’t adapt to changing times, you’re likely to fall by the wayside. This is true regarding not just marketing trends or client behavior, but also in terms of personal development. Upgrading business skills, improving on communication, learning how to be an effective leader, are typical examples of course material for changing and growing leadership roles.

The need for self growth is not lost on Jeremy Bowman, founder and CEO of 20-year old Allura International, a distributor of imported goods that counts Wal-Mart, Sears and Zellers among his clents. Though the entrepreneur has been in the retail business since he ran his own store in England at the age of 19, as Allura grew, so did his need to change and to adapt his role.

"The main thing I had was the knowledge and capability of how to sell," said Bowman. "I was a natural salesman. As I developed and enlarged the business, I learned more skills, such as hiring staff and managing staff. My job was very much as a hands-on entrepreneur, then I changed it about 12 years ago to being a management run company. And my skills needed to change. I needed more personal skill sets, as opposed to just a business skill set."

Bowman put together an advisory board of directors from experienced owners and managers to give him guidance. "The board provides exceptional advice and help on how to run a business that, on my own, I would not find," he said. Then he started exploring options for personal development.

Most recently, he added coursework from Landmark Education to his resume. He had looked at Landmark as another means of self-exploration and personal development, but found he came away with tools to apply directly in his business, such as how to get staff to be more direct when communicating with one another. Overall, the combination of managerial and leadership training has been invaluable, said Bowman. "Our own internal corporate work has made a massive difference to impovements within the company. We communicate better; we work with each other better; there are untold improvements."